Turkey-Qatar pact can be ‘misused for military missions’ in the Gulf

Turkey’s military agreement with Qatar is full of
loopholes and vague terms that appear to have been deliberately inserted,
according to a report by the Nordic
Monitor, a Sweden-based monitoring site.

The report by
Abdullah Bozkurt, reveals that the bilateral agreement would allow Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to use Turkish air, land and naval assets to
promote his own ideological and personal interests in the Gulf and beyond by
using the hard power of the NATO military alliance’s second largest army.

“If not checked,
the agreement carries huge risks of escalation of Turkey’s involvement in
potential conflicts that may have nothing to do with protecting or promoting
Turkey’s national interests. This further confirms the view that the vagueness
in the agreement provisions were deliberate and systematic to allow Erdogan to
use them as he sees fit,” writes Bozkurt.

Combat
missions

The agreement goes
beyond mere training and joint exercises and also incorporates “operations,”
which may very well suggest combat missions for Turkish troops.

According to the
report in the Nordic Monitor, “The agreement was rushed through the
cumbersome and slow-moving process in the Turkish Parliament in 2017 when
Turkey wanted to send a message to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and
other Arab states that had picked a fight with Qatar, Erdogan’s sweetheart
Islamist ally.”

Article
4 of the “Implementation Agreement Between the Government of the Republic of
Turkey and the Government of the State of Qatar on Deployment of Turkish Forces
into Territory of Qatar,” which was signed on April 28, 2016 in Doha, includes
the undefined phrase “any other missions” for the deployment of Turkish troops.
This means Erdoğan can also bypass the Turkish Parliament for authorization of
overseas missions, using the vague definition to fit his whims and would not
need to obtain the advance approval from Parliament that is required for the
deployment of Turkish troops abroad according to the Turkish Constitution.

The full text of
this provision in the agreement reads as follows: “The main mission of the unit
is to support enhancement of defense capabilities of Qatar through
joint/combined exercises and training, and subject to approval by both parties,
execute training/exercises with other nations’ armed forces and contribute to
the counter-terrorism and international peace support operations and any other
missions mutually agreed upon by written consent of both parties.”

Ambiguity
in the agreement

Another ambiguity
in the agreement, which was incorporated into Turkish law on June 9, 2017, is
that it does not say how long Turkish troops will remain in Qatar. Article 1 of
the agreement on the scope and the purpose of the agreement say that the deal
regulates “the long term, as well as temporary, presence and activities of
Turkish Armed Forces.”

What “the long
term” prospect is and who defines the duration of the commitment for Turkish
troops and on what criteria are not specified in the agreement. Article 17
specifies the duration of the agreement to be 10 years with automatic renewals
for an additional term of five years for each extension. Whether that term
applies to the presence of troops remains an open question.

The agreement does
not specify force level or the number of troops. Article 2 states that Turkey
will send air, land and naval assets to Qatar without setting any number or
level of the forces. Although section two of this article states that “the
deployment of the forces shall be in accordance with the plan to be accepted by
the Parties,” the following section says Turkey will make a determination on
“the duration of the mission of personnel to be assigned.”

Furthermore,
Turkey’s military agreement with Qatar does not foresee a third-party dispute
settlement mechanism, either. Article 16 of the agreement says disputes “shall
be resolved by negotiation between the Parties, without referring to the
jurisdiction of any third party, establishment, or national or international
tribunal.”

This implementation
agreement is actually a follow-up of the “framework” military cooperation
agreement that was signed by the two countries on December 19, 2014, and
entered into force on June 15, 2015. In contrast to the framework deal, the
implementation agreement gives detailed clues as to what Turkey and Qatar hope
to accomplish in the Gulf.

Turkey considers
ties with Qatar to be strategic, and Turkey’s Erdogan and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh
Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in 2014 set up a High-Level Strategic Council (HLSC),
an intergovernmental mechanism that brings together most ministers at summits
led by the heads of state and government.

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Revelation 1:3 "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near".
Tommy Settipani,
Watchman for Christ